Our friends over at rebelscum.com have just launched an all-new site dedicated to Japanese Star Wars collecting, posting an informative tutorial on the history of the hobby in the Land of the Rising Sun. Here’s a bit of the intro:

In 1978, turmoil from a galaxy far, far away finally reached the big screens in Japan. Tickets were selling by the thousands, and in every big city everyone was talking about the new Star Wars movie. The stage had been set for a new promotional era in Japan. The first company to realize this potential was Coca Cola. They had devised an ingenious marketing plan that not only boosted sales, but also began a race for toy products throughout Japan. They began advertising new bottle caps which would contain a small vinyl picture of characters and scenes from the movie. There would be 50 designs total. There were even 3 color variations which included a gold background, a silver background, and a pink strip design. It seemed the collecting and trading, among the anxious consumers was endless.

Read the entire article here. As big fans of Japanese Star Wars collectibles, this is one we’ll be watching!

While watching the cool environmental vlog ZapRoot, we couldn’t help but notice the snarky host Jess giving props to the R2-D2 Obi Shawn car that many Star Wars fans see pop up at various conventions like Comic-Con and Celebration.

Two rather unique versions of Princess Leia showed up on “American Idol” this week to amuse judges with their love for Star Wars. Fan Christina Tolisano paid tribute to Leia by wearing her hair in the classic buns style, while a male fan showed off his “assets” dressed in the rather drafty Slave Leia bikini costume. While their singing didn’t wow the judges, their passion for Star Wars left a memorable impression.

It’s the Photoshop well that just keeps giving. The folks at Worth 1000 put the call out for sprinking sci-fi into non-sci fi movies, and Star Wars is definitely well represented, nosing its way into Alexander, Easy Rider,Wallace and Grommit and, as you can see below, The Godfather.